JEDDAH, 28 February 2007 — Al-Nasr’s mission in the Arab Champions League went from difficult to impossible after Nasr lost their quarterfinal second leg match against ES Setif of Algeria 1-0 in Algeria yesterday.
With the victory ES Setif jumped to the first position with 10 points and qualified for the semifinals.
With one round left, Nasr must win the match against Kuwait of Kuwait in Kuwait on March 13 and hope that Al-Faisali of Jordan lose against Setif in Algeria on March 15 to have any chance of progressing to the next round.
In the event of an Al-Faisali win against ES Setif or a draw Nasr can kiss their semifinal hopes goodbye and both ES Setif and Al-Faisali would qualify from Group B. Nasr missed the golden opportunity to either win or draw to at least delay the fate of the Group B hopefuls in the next round. Now, Nasr’s fate is partly in the hands of other teams.
Abdul Malek Ziyaya scored the only goal of the match in minutes 26 and this was enough to keep the large Algerian crowd happy on a cold night.
Ziyaya caught a deflected ball, squared up and delivered a nifty shot from outside the penalty box for what proved to the only burst Setif needed to beat Nasr.
Stung by Setif’s goal, Nasr made a determined push for the equalizer that never came.
Nasr was denied a penalty kick for what seemed like a tackle inside the penalty box in the second half on Al-Harthi.
The referee had another judgment and ruled out the penalty kick.
Nasr pushed forward in a more aggressive fashion but all their efforts went o naught in light of the strong ES Setif defense line.
